Sounds like something your computer would get, doesn’t it? "Yeah, I haven’t looked at these discs in years and I’ll bet they’ve degenerated some." But, a Nurse from Group Health called me up this afternoon and said that the results from my x-ray the other day shows Degenerative Disc Disease L5 through S1 and asked why I didn’t take the Rx for pain meds. Told her I wasn’t having any pain; just a numbness & burning sensation. (SWMBO later asked me "Well, isn’t burning pain?" Well, yes, sort of. I think of pain as being something you get when you break a bone or bruise yourself or something like that. What I have isn’t really pain, to me, but really annoying.) And that Narcs made me "feel funny" personality wise and won’t take them unless I’m really in pain. She made an appointment for me to see my Doc next Monday. We’ll see how that goes.

Here’s some on DDD from Spine-health.com

A large part of many patients’ confusion is that the term “degenerative disc disease” sounds like a progressive, very threatening condition. However, this condition is not strictly degenerative and is not really a disease:

• Part of the confusion probably comes from the term "degenerative", which implies to most people that the symptoms will get worse with age. The term applies to the disc degenerating, but does not apply to the symptoms. While it is true that the disc degeneration is likely to progress over time, the low back pain from degenerative disc disease usually does not get worse and in fact usually gets better over time.
• Another source of confusion is probably created by the term "disease", which is actually a misnomer. Degenerative disc disease is not really a disease at all, but rather a degenerative condition that at times can produce pain from a damaged disc.

Disc degeneration is a natural part of aging and over time all people will exhibit changes in their discs consistent with a greater or lesser degree of degeneration. However, not all people will develop symptoms. In fact, degenerative disc disease is quite variable in its nature and severity.

And later in the article:

In addition to low back pain from degenerative disc disease, there may be leg pain, numbness and tingling. Even without pressure on the nerve root (a "pinched nerve"), other structures in the back can refer pain down the rear and into the legs. The nerves can become sensitized with inflammation from the proteins within the disc space and produce the sensation of numbness/tingling. Generally, the pain does not go below the knee.

These sensations, although worrisome and annoying, rarely indicate that there is any ongoing nerve root damage. However, any weakness in the leg muscles (such as foot drop) is an indicator of some nerve root damage.

So, it appears it’s not something I have to get overly excited about as long as I take care of myself. Cool!

Not much else going on around here. Been staying home mostly as the weather is really starting to suck. And I really don’t have that much to do at the property. Even with gas prices coming down I don’t want to "waste" gas driving out there and back unless I actually accomplish something. So I’ve been doing things around the house and getting all the scans of family pictures in one place so I can finally see what the hell I’ve accomplished there. I was really surprised how many duplicates I had of pictures & video’s! Daymn!

But, occasionally, I have to. Been having this numb/burning feeling on the lateral part of my right thigh. Had it off and on for a long time but lately it’s been getting worse. Burns when I sit too long or walk too long. I figured it was just age finally getting to me; but decided to e-mail my Doc cause it has been getting worse lately. He e-mailed me back telling me to make an appointment ASAP. I e-mailed back that maybe it’s this chair I spend so much time in sitting in front of this computer and that I’d change chairs and if it was still bothering me in a month I’d make an appointment. At 0830 this morning a Nurse called me and said that my Doc wanted me in today. ???

So I made an appointment for 1450 And I made it rain and all. Didn’t get to see MY Doc though; he was off today. But the Doc I did see started talking about L3 Disk Degeneration and wanting x-rays. Checked me out physically and all my Range Of Motion (ROM) is normal (for an old guy) and I have absolutely no other signs or symptoms except for this burning sensation in my thigh. Hell, even my blood pressure is pretty good for a guy my age. So he ordered lumbar x-rays and said that if it got any worse he’d order some kind of "nerve" tests. Apparently, in these "nerve" tests they stick a needle in your upper thigh, another needle in your lower leg and apply electricity until you yell "Uncle!". Brrr. Gives me chills just to think about it.

So, anywho, this Doc tries to give a Rx for a narc to control the pain. I turned it down cause I’m not having anything you’d call Pain; just this burning sensation. Told him to just leave the Rx on the books and I’d pick it up if I needed it. I hate taking drugs though! Narcotics make me feel ’funny’ personality wise. But I will go with his instructions to avoid heavy lifting or bending over for awhile to give the disk time to heal; if that’s the problem. (Had to get it in writing though for SWMBO. Hey, would YOU take MY word for it?!)

X-Ray machine was cool though. They don’t use film anymore. The ’cassette’ that used to hold film now holds something else and they can take it right to a computer and look at your x-ray right then. The X-Ray Tech showed me mine. Spine looked normal to me except for these little pointy spikes coming off the edges of some of the vertebrae (which may be the source of the problem also).

Got home kind of late and SWMBO was hungry so she took me to McDonalds for dinner. Then we stopped by Office Depot and found a chair to replace my computer chair. $100! Phew! Of course, I had to lift it to put it into her Kia then lift if out of the Kia and carry it into the house and unpack it and build it. Glad I didn’t have to do any heavy lifting or anything…

Anywho, that’s about it around here. Heard some thunder mixed in with the rain earlier today. Rained a bit. Hard at times. Spent an hour working on a friends computer until I just couldn’t take his constant jabbering anymore. How do you tell some one that you don’t want to hear a sound from them unless you ask them a direct question cause you’re concentrating on the problem the computer is having? Well, it didn’t work.

Smallville was pretty cool tonight. Chloe finally got to tell Clark how she ’used’ to feel about him. They need to tell Jimmy about Clark though so Jimmy will know what’s going on when she disappears to help Clark. I just can’t warm up to this person that took over for Lex though… Even though Clark seems to be more at-home with his abilities he really needs to learn to FLY!

I’m already sick of the damned rain! Been raining several days now; which pretty much keeps me home. This keeps up and I’ll NEED to find a job. Cabin fever is setting in. Guess I’m too used to getting out during the day. But I’ve done about as much as I can do out at the property so there’s no sense in wasting gas going out there and back.

^{So, who knows what movie this picture is from?}

Had a couple of Spammers sign up as subscribers. Assholes! It’s bad enough that they send us all unwanted/unasked for e-mail. But at least they have to take time out of their schedule to sign in and sign up manually!

Not only am I on mine 10 hours a day (making music, ripping my dvd’s, scanning pictures, whatever) but I spent a good 6 hours today building a computer for a friend of mine, installing Linux and getting the damned modem to work. Finally did it. Finally got it over to his house and set up. Finally got the damned thing to connect to Juno (of all places). And he finally got to read his mail.

This week has been pretty much SSDD. Been staying around the house cause of the weather: Rain. Did manage to get out to the property yesterday and put in some more drainage; hopefully my road won’t wash out this year! Our regular "date night" last Friday was later than usual as SWMBO worked the Genealogy Library 1000-1400. Then we drove into Tacoma to return the flooring samples she’d borrowed and ate at a very slow Pizza Hut (next to Timberline Bank) before heading home. Made our usual stop at Albertson’s and spent our usual too much. I hate driving in traffic! I can but I hate it. (I did learn to drive in L.A. a long time ago.) At least with the new bridge the old bridge (coming back this way) is a lot faster.

Not much else going on. Been watching the news and am not encouraged. That $700 Billion "bailout" finalized at around $850 Billion cause buttheads kept adding stuff to the bill. Why in the Hell can’t they pass a Bill for what it was supposed to be ONLY? God forbid they should try to save the Taxpayers some money!